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Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Galveston and the zgoo Storm: Catastrophe and Catalyst. By Patricia Bellis Bixel andElizabeth Hayes Turner. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2ooo. Pp. xi-ii+ 90. Foreword, acknowledgments, introduction, bibliographical essay, in-dex. ISBN 0-292-70883-1. $6o.oo, cloth).Patricia Bellis Bixel and Elizabeth Hayes Turner's Galveston and the Igoo Stormcommemorates the hurricane that leveled Galveston, Texas, on September 8,1900oo. The storm-the worst natural disaster North America had seen-causedthe deaths of six thousand people. The book, however, does more than chronicleGalveston's destruction. Bixel and Turner explore the many changes, positive aswell as negative, that resulted from the city's struggle to rebuild its government,economy, and infrastructure. A generous selection of photographs helps readersappreciate the scale of the destruction left in the storm's wake, the difficultiesfaced in the recovery effort, and the monumental feats of civil engineering un-dertaken to help prevent a future disaster.The authors trace the story of Galveston's rise from the earliest European con-tact to its emergence as a principal city of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico. By thetime the 19oo storm hit, Galveston had become a bustling port city. Situated on abarrier island, it had weathered smaller hurricanes, but its residents were unpre-pared for the magnitude of this one.The authors tell a fascinating story. Chapter one, for example, which discussesthe powerful hurricane's destruction of Galveston, places the reader at the centerof the drama by recounting how the city's residents reacted to the news of the im-pending storm, as well as how they dealt with the destruction and its aftermath.Other chapters examine the relief effort, the switch from a representative gov-ernment to a commission government, the shifting distribution of political pow-er, and the massive engineering projects that raised the city's grade and builtprotective sea walls. These chapters offer readers the opportunity to appreciatethe scale of what Galvestonians were able to accomplish in the face of disaster.Various interests, both humanitarian and economic, motivated citizens to workhard to rebuild the city.Particularly interesting is the discussion of how the relief effort and changes incity government affected African Americans and women. The authors conclude,"The result was the rise in white female power at the expense of black men" (p.149). The presence of the Red Cross and its charismatic leader Clara Barton, theauthors argue, encouraged women to participate in the relief effort. Long afterthe relief effort concluded, organized women continued to exert influence in citypolicy. African Americans, on the other hand, faced limited opportunities to par-ticipate in the relief effort. And the city's shift to an at-large elected commissiongovernment from a representative government further eroded the political pow-er of African American men.Although aimed at a general audience, scholars will also appreciate Bixel andTurner's study. The work incorporates previously unavailable sources and buildsupon earlier studies of the hurricane. Specialists may wish to see the historicalcontext expanded beyond what the authors provide, and will be disappointed at